Tag Archives: cml

Last year I was in the process of identifying a good interest only re-mortgage – nothing out of the ordinary – just over 55% LTV; bags of rental cover, clean title and excellent credit score – By the time I was ready to move I had reached 70 years of age and all of a sudden every option on the high street fell apart because of it.

The CML office told me it was unlawful for their members to discriminate in this way and that they shouldn’t do so; but in the next breath said they had no control over their members on this matter and couldn’t (most likely wouldn’t) say where to complain to

I eventually had to resort to a commercial mortgage where everything is substantially more expensive with no freebies like valuation; legals, etc.

I think I understand how this scenario came about (viz. on the back of Central Gov’s fear of a interest only bubble in the residential market) but for it to cross overto BTL is sad and of course discriminatory.

By the way, I’ve been a Landlord for over thirty years (12 tenancies) – do everything myself; never had to evict; and seldom had a problem with arrears (touch wood)

The Council of Mortgage Lenders CML reports that total gross mortgage lending increased to £15 billion in June, which is 2% more than £14.7 billion in May this year and 26% higher than the total of £11.9 billion in June 2012.

This is the highest monthly figure for gross lending since October 2008.

Gross lending for the second quarter of 2013 was therefore an estimated £42 billion. This represents a 24% increase from the previous three months and is the highest quarterly estimate since Q4 2008.

CML chief economist Bob Pannell said:

“Improvements in the cost and availability of mortgage credit are underpinning a meaningful recovery in the housing market. In recent months, we have seen the strongest performance for mortgage lending since 2008.

“However, although the pace of first-time buyer activity is approaching a quarter of a million per annum, it is worth bearing in mind that this is still barely half of activity rates a decade earlier, and so far below what might be considered normal levels.”

Oven cleaning is one of the biggest issues and this article is to help Landlords present this particular item in their property in its best condition for an inventory inspection and help tenants bring an oven back to its initial clean state when leaving the accommodation.

Let’s put it into perspective, the cleanliness of a property makes up 51% of tenancy deposit disputes and some of which can be attributed to people forgetting or missing an item to be cleaned, another is that differing people have differing ideas of what is clean. Let me give you an idea how we all think the same but differently.

Picture a cat in your head,
How big is it?
What is it doing?
What colour is it?

While we have all just seen a cat in our minds eye, some cats will be small, medium, large. It might be sleeping, sitting, jumping around and any colour you want. Nevertheless, it is still a cat. The same is true for cleaning, someone might have actually worked very hard to clean a property but yet it is not you to your high standard. Maybe they just don’t know how to do the task correctly and yes some are just simply too lazy to do it. It is a rare situation that we know which of these statements is true for a given household and it might be a combination of all of these factors.

There is a continuum for the level of cleanliness form: never been cleaned, attempted but still dirty, cleaned to an average household standard up to what we call in the inventory profession “cleaned to a high domestic standard” and “cleaned to a professional standard” the best of course being a professional clean.

Here is a list of key phrases I use when describing the cleanliness of an oven from best to worst:
1. As New
2. Cleaned to a professional standard
3. Cleaned to a high domestic standard
4. Clean to a domestic standard
5. Partly cleaned
6. Needs finished clean
7. Not clean.

I must add that fortunately, most inspection I do I only have to decide if the cooker/oven has been cleaned to a domestic or professional standard.

If you look at the picture below, this is an oven an oven cleaned to a high standard but its condition is excluded from our discussion on cleaning. This is a worn oven and unless you have prior information, to this picture, it is not possible to say if this is through damage or due to age and fair wear and tear.

This oven is clean but through age and use, it is marked and even rusted at the sides.

Then we have the oven that is clean to a high domestic standard that is to say it is grease free but there are still baked on marks.

You should also watch out for chemical residue, many of the excellent oven cleaning products on the market leave residue marks on surfaces if you don’t wash off the product fully, which technically means the oven is still partially dirty, need a finish clean.

There are several very good cleaning products on the market. But there is one that I prefer to use it gets the job done and is fairly easy to use and normally takes a clean to domestic standard to a professional clean level. It is a strong chemical so you have to be careful and follow the manufactures instructions it is “Oven Pride”. Please note that I don’t have shares in the company and I am not getting any benefit for mentioning this product my motivation for mentioning it is to help anyone who reads this article in particular Landlords and Tenants.

About the author of this Post

Syd Lewis has been a private landlord for over 20 years, he is an accredited member of the National Landlords Association (NLA), Residential Landlords Association (RLA), Sponsor of the Good Landlords Campaign, a full member of the Association of Professional Inventory Providers (APIP) and a Certified Electrical Portable Appliance Tester (NIPIT). He is passionate about what he does which is providing residential inventory services, PAT testing and marketing floor plans for Agents, Landlords and Tenants. Inventories start from £56.00 to find out more see:-

The 2013 Budget is hoped to boost the housing market and construction industry. Yesterday Chancellor George Osborne announced new plans to help people buy their first homes homes with the Help To Buy Scheme and an extension of the previous NewBuy Guarantee scheme to include older houses as well as new-builds.

For three years from the start of 2014 the government will support £130bn of first time buyer mortgages by guaranteeing 15% of the loan leaving borrowers at risk of losing only their 5% deposit and lenders liable for only 80% of the purchase price.

Lenders taking part should therefore be happier to accept smaller deposits as security for loans, but it is still a relatively small proportion of the total mortgage market worth £1.2 trillion, according to the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML).

The theory is that giving more people the ability to purchase a home will increase demand for property resulting in an increase in price and promoting an increase in supply (more construction) to fill the demand. It is very simple Supply and Demand economics that will work, but it is the amount that it works by that is the question.

Of all the sectors that contribute to the UK’s GDP it is the construction industry that has been most badly affected helping to drag us back into a double dip recession and a stagnating economy, so it makes sense for the government to try and stimulate demand for construction.

The Housing Market is also a very important barometer for confidence in the economy and when people feel confident they spend money and invest in business which includes Landlords.

Any kind of confidence boost in the housing market has got to be a good thing for Landlords and property investors in the long run. If the value of property strengthens then lenders will feel more confident to lend on better rates and Loan to Values. Landlords may eventually be able to remortgage again after the death of the remortgage market for the last four years. We will no longer be stuck locked into existing lenders and at the mercy of their desire to either get rid of Buy to Let mortgages or fleece Landlords for greater profit margins as the Bank of Ireland are trying to do.

A competitive Buy to Let market is essential for the long term planning of Landlords taking control back from the banks and into the hands of investors once again.

However we cannot get too excited as it all depends on the degree by which government support works that is all important, and with the revision of GDP growth forecasts halved it would indicate that there is a long road to recovery to travel yet.

The latest market data from the Association of Residential Lettings Agents (ARLA) has revealed an upward trend in landlord investment over the past 12 months.

The average number of buy-to-let properties owned by landlords peaked at eight in the final quarter of 2012, up from seven at the beginning of the year. The apparent rise in confidence in the market also prompted increased landlord activity, with 29 per cent stating they have bought a property in the past year compared to 25 per cent at the start of 2012. Continue reading Landlords investing more according to new data from ARLA→

The number of tenants in severe arrears has risen to a massive 100,400 as rents continue to rise while the economy and jobs falter. The latest figure is 24% higher than the same period last year.

According to the Tenant Arrears Tracker by Templeton LPA, part of LSL Property Services, the first quarter of 2012 had 7,000 fewer tenants in arrears of two months or more than the quarter just gone. While the amount of tenants in severe arrears has risen, the general level of tenant arrears has dropped as 1% more rent was paid on time than the previous month. By the end of April, 9.9% of rent was paid late, with 8.9% of all rent unpaid or late by the end of May. Continue reading Tenants in severe arrears tops 100,000→

Buy to let mortgage lenders are sighing with relief after the European parliament voted to exclude landlord loans from tough new lending rules.

The UK’s Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) has campaigned long and hard for buy to let to be treated as a commercial loan rather than a residential mortgage, which was the initial thrust of the
European directive on credit agreements relating to residential property (CARRP). Continue reading Euro MPs kick out EU buy to let mortgage regulation→